Government and Foundation Supporters
Letter from the Executive Director & Board Chair
Altman Foundation Bernard F. and Alva B. Gimbel Foundation David Rockefeller Fund Donors Education Collaborative FJC - A Foundation of Philanthropic Funds Ford Foundation Four Freedoms Fund Fund for New Citizens GE Foundation JM Kaplan Fund Korean American Community Foundation M&T Charitable Foundation National Partnership for New Americans New York City Department of Education New York City Department of Youth and Community Development New York Community Trust New York Foundation New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services New York State Immigrant Action Fund New York State Office for New Americans North Star Fund O’Neill Foundation Open Society Foundations Robert Sterling Clark Foundation Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Rockefeller Brothers Fund Social Services Block Grants program Tiger Baron Foundation Twenty-First Century ILGWU Heritage Fund UJA - Federation of New York United Hospital Fund
60%
Dear Friends, What an incredibly exciting year it has been for the NYIC!
United for Justice and Opportunity
As of this writing, we are on the verge of seeing the President announce long-awaited administrative relief that will potentially open the door for millions of America’s immigrants to be protected from deportation and to work legally. This major victory has been the culmination of a twoyear effort of our statewide New Yorkers for Real Immigration Reform campaign, working with our national allies to push the President to take this historic step for immigrants. But we’ve been up to much more than that. Throughout 2014, we’ve continued to make real progress in reforms at many levels: helping win major victories in New York City such as a municipal ID and detainer reform; ensuring that immigrants can get affordable and quality health care; fighting for New York’s immigrant students to get the support they need; and lifting up immigrants’ voices in the 2014 elections through our Immigrants Vote! campaign. Along the way, we convened the first ever conference to coordinate broad legal services on the City and State level this June through the New York Immigrant Assistance Consortium (NYIAC), bringing together 300 community leaders to discuss how to prepare for administrative relief. Moving forward, we’ll play a lead role in ensuring that up to a quarter of a million New Yorkers can walk through this historic door of opportunity and get the work permits, drivers’ licenses and deportation protection they need. 2%
This 2014 Annual Report gives you a quick snapshot of the Coalition’s efforts this past year, and is dedicated to our members, our supporters, our allies. With your invaluable support, we’ve made big strides in 2014 —and are poised to take even bigger ones in 2015. Thank you for your commitment to building a better New York!
5%
Best,
100%
2014 Annual Report The New York Immigration Coalition 137-139 West 25th Street, 12th Floor New York, NY 10001
www.nyic.org 60%
Steven Choi Executive Director
Guillermo Chacón Board Chair
5%
Major Individual Supporters Luis Argueta Gerald Blume Suzette Brooks Masters Elizabeth Chandler May Chen Rockwell Chin James Cho Srimal Choi Young Choi Bradley Edmister Elizabeth Gilbert Dmitri Glinski Kevin Hackett 60% Graciela Heymann Michael Hirschhorn and Jimena Martinez Tony Hsu Caroline Katz Kenny, Carla and Julia Lee
Joan Malin Margaret McHugh John Osborn Chul Pak Betsy Palmieri Vanessa Perez Susan Plum Theodore Ruthizer Wynn Salisch Reshma Saujani and Nihal Mehta Andrew Scherer Michael Skolnik Margaret Smyth Lee Sung My Chi To Jaime Weisberg Pat Young
Notable Numbers 2014
Organizational and Corporate Supporters
1199 SEIU United Health Care Workers East African Services Committee AJC New York American Immigration Lawyers Association NY Chapter Asian American Bar Association of New York Bloomberg Philanthropies Campaign for Community Change / Center for Community Change Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Rockville Center Citi Community Development The City University of New York Community Service Society Con Edison Corporation for National and Community Service Davis Polk & Wardwell Debevoise & Plimpton LLP Deutsche Bank El Centro del Inmigrante Fried Frank Harris Shriver and Jacobson LLP Geller and Company Haitian Americans United for Progress Korean2%American Lawyers Association of Greater New York Labor Council for Latin American Advancement Latino Commission on AIDS Lehman College CUNY M&T Bank MinKwon Center for Community Action N. Cheng and Sons New York City Central Labor Council, AFL - CIO New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation New York City Labor Council for Latin American Advancement New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health New York State AFL - CIO New York State United Teachers New York University Center for the Study of Asian American Health Partnership for New York City Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP 100% The Rockefeller Group SEIU 32BJ Signature Group Holdings, Inc. Tishman Speyer United Way of New York City Western Union
Pro Bono/In-Kind Supporters Alexis Pimentel Law Office Lawyers Alliance for New York Owen Pell and White & Case LLP Seyfarth Shaw LLP Sidley Austin LLP
65 Languages spoken by NYIC member organizations
2205 Attendees to NYIC’s immigration advocacy events, rallies, and trainings 16,475 College Guides for parents distributed (2,774 in English; 3,151 in Spanish; 10,550 in Chinese) 5%
436 Immigrant parents who attended a college workshop and learned their children can go to college
35,000 Voters contacted through the NYIC’s 2014 Immigrants Vote! Campaign
2013-14 NYIC Board of Directors
NYIC Staff
Angela Fernandez
Steven Choi, Esq.
Oriana Sanchez
Camille Mackler, Esq.
Laurie Smolenski
Elizabeth Plum
Kim Sykes
Jackie Vimo
Jonathan Vidal
Mubashar (Max) Ahmed
Samuel Palmer-Simon
Mayra Aldas-Deckert
Sara Rakita
Director of Legal Services Central American Refugee Center (CARECEN)
Murad Awawdeh
Thanu Yakupitiyage
Sandy Myers
Claudia Calhoon
Executive Director Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights
Annetta Seecharran Individual
Bakary Tandia
Case Manager and Policy Advocate African Services Committee
Carmen Maquilon
Director, Government & Community Relations Catholic Charities Community Services
Mae Lee
Director Chinese Progressive Association
Mohammed Razvi
Executive Director Council of Peoples Organization (COPO)
Director of Immigrant Service Catholic Charities Diocese of Rockville Center (CCRC)
Muzaffar Chishti
Elsie Saint Louis
Patrick Young
Executive Director Haitian-Americans United for Progress (HAUP)
Estela Vazquez
Executive Vice President Local 1199-SEIU
Gail Golden
Co-Chairwoman Rockland Immigration Coalition
Gonzalo Mercado Individual
%
5 Grace Shim
Executive Director MinKwon Center for Community Action
Graciela Heymann
Executive Director Westchester Hispanic Coalition
Guillermo Chacón
Director Migration Policy Institute at NYU School of Law
Government Relations Executive UJA-Federation of New York
Seema Agnani
Executive Director Chhaya CDC
Vladimir Epshteyn
President Russian-American Voters Educational League (RAVEL)
Wilfredo Larancuent
President of the Laundry Workers New York, New Jersey Joint Board Workers United
Executive Director
Director of Legal Initiatives DIrector of Special Projects Director of Regional Advocacy Senior Education Advocacy Associate Special Projects Associate Civic Engagement Coordinator Health Advocacy Senior Specialist
Manuel Castro
Immigration Campaign Organizer
Christina Chang
Immigration Advocacy Manager
Charlotte Gossett Navarro
Regional Outreach Senior Associate
Training and Legal Initiatives Associate % 2
Development Manager Manager of Education Advocacy Membership & Capacity Building Associate Legal Initiatives Coordinator Managing Director
Regional Outreach Associate
Juan J. Martinez-Hill
Linda Sarsour
Juan J. Ramírez
Special Projects Associate Senior Administrative and Operations Associate
Gillian Rowland-Kain Special Assistant
14,334 Identity documents issued since 2011 through the NYIC’s 60% Key to the City events 62 Counties in New York State with NYIC member organizations present, representing every county in the state
Claudia Cabrera
DACA Outreach Public Ally
Laura Rocío Celaya
NYIC Vista, Communications Projects and % Fundraising Fellow 100
Tea Tammistu
Francis Madi
Attendees since 2011 at the NYIC’s Key to the City events— a mobile, community-based initiative that provides immigrant families with vital consular identity documents, legal screenings, college readiness programming and more
NYIC Fellows
Silvia Gonzales
Administrative Manager
22,051
147 Individuals recruited to the NYIC’s Civilian Emergency Response Corps
Nancy Opuku
New Americans Volunteer Coordinator
26 Organizations who joined NYIC’s Civic Engagement Collaborative comprised of good government organizations, non-profit agencies, organizing groups and others
Communications Coordinator
Kiwi Grady
President Latino Commission on Aids Executive Director Arab American Association of New York
400 Press hits since January 2014
333,000 New American citizens that the NYIC and partners have registered to vote since 1998
NYIC’s Board pose with New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.
Luz Tavarez-Salazar
14 College Guide workshops presented to immigrant parents
NYIC Vista, Volunteer Coordinator Education Fellow Consultants:
Andrew Scherer Katherine Fennelly Melanie Reyes Christina Chang Karen Kaminsky Jacki Esposito Bessie Schachter
240 Individuals recruited to the NYIC’s general volunteer cohort
1,580 Volunteers who have supported individuals through 24 Superstorm Sandy recovery and/or immigration support service activities/events 124 Trainings conducted by the NYIC through our Immigrant Concerns Training Institute, serving a total of 3,084 people 6,352
Individuals (non-profit staff, community members, legal providers, government agency staff, and other public officials) reached through informational sessions, trainings, and community education events on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
26 DACA outreach providers coordinated by the NYIC—who through their outreach efforts referred more than 3,000 individuals to legal and literacy providers
241 Participants at health advocacy trainings and town hall meetings
Government and Foundation Supporters
Letter from the Executive Director & Board Chair
Altman Foundation Bernard F. and Alva B. Gimbel Foundation David Rockefeller Fund Donors Education Collaborative FJC - A Foundation of Philanthropic Funds Ford Foundation Four Freedoms Fund Fund for New Citizens GE Foundation JM Kaplan Fund Korean American Community Foundation M&T Charitable Foundation National Partnership for New Americans New York City Department of Education New York City Department of Youth and Community Development New York Community Trust New York Foundation New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services New York State Immigrant Action Fund New York State Office for New Americans North Star Fund O’Neill Foundation Open Society Foundations Robert Sterling Clark Foundation Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Rockefeller Brothers Fund Social Services Block Grants program Tiger Baron Foundation Twenty-First Century ILGWU Heritage Fund UJA - Federation of New York United Hospital Fund
60%
Dear Friends, What an incredibly exciting year it has been for the NYIC!
United for Justice and Opportunity
As of this writing, we are on the verge of seeing the President announce long-awaited administrative relief that will potentially open the door for millions of America’s immigrants to be protected from deportation and to work legally. This major victory has been the culmination of a twoyear effort of our statewide New Yorkers for Real Immigration Reform campaign, working with our national allies to push the President to take this historic step for immigrants. But we’ve been up to much more than that. Throughout 2014, we’ve continued to make real progress in reforms at many levels: helping win major victories in New York City such as a municipal ID and detainer reform; ensuring that immigrants can get affordable and quality health care; fighting for New York’s immigrant students to get the support they need; and lifting up immigrants’ voices in the 2014 elections through our Immigrants Vote! campaign. Along the way, we convened the first ever conference to coordinate broad legal services on the City and State level this June through the New York Immigrant Assistance Consortium (NYIAC), bringing together 300 community leaders to discuss how to prepare for administrative relief. Moving forward, we’ll play a lead role in ensuring that up to a quarter of a million New Yorkers can walk through this historic door of opportunity and get the work permits, drivers’ licenses and deportation protection they need. 2%
This 2014 Annual Report gives you a quick snapshot of the Coalition’s efforts this past year, and is dedicated to our members, our supporters, our allies. With your invaluable support, we’ve made big strides in 2014 —and are poised to take even bigger ones in 2015. Thank you for your commitment to building a better New York!
5%
Best,
100%
2014 Annual Report The New York Immigration Coalition 137-139 West 25th Street, 12th Floor New York, NY 10001
www.nyic.org 60%
Steven Choi Executive Director
Guillermo Chacón Board Chair
5%
Major Individual Supporters Luis Argueta Gerald Blume Suzette Brooks Masters Elizabeth Chandler May Chen Rockwell Chin James Cho Srimal Choi Young Choi Bradley Edmister Elizabeth Gilbert Dmitri Glinski Kevin Hackett 60% Graciela Heymann Michael Hirschhorn and Jimena Martinez Tony Hsu Caroline Katz Kenny, Carla and Julia Lee
Joan Malin Margaret McHugh John Osborn Chul Pak Betsy Palmieri Vanessa Perez Susan Plum Theodore Ruthizer Wynn Salisch Reshma Saujani and Nihal Mehta Andrew Scherer Michael Skolnik Margaret Smyth Lee Sung My Chi To Jaime Weisberg Pat Young
Notable Numbers 2014
Organizational and Corporate Supporters
1199 SEIU United Health Care Workers East African Services Committee AJC New York American Immigration Lawyers Association NY Chapter Asian American Bar Association of New York Bloomberg Philanthropies Campaign for Community Change / Center for Community Change Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Rockville Center Citi Community Development The City University of New York Community Service Society Con Edison Corporation for National and Community Service Davis Polk & Wardwell Debevoise & Plimpton LLP Deutsche Bank El Centro del Inmigrante Fried Frank Harris Shriver and Jacobson LLP Geller and Company Haitian Americans United for Progress Korean2%American Lawyers Association of Greater New York Labor Council for Latin American Advancement Latino Commission on AIDS Lehman College CUNY M&T Bank MinKwon Center for Community Action N. Cheng and Sons New York City Central Labor Council, AFL - CIO New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation New York City Labor Council for Latin American Advancement New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health New York State AFL - CIO New York State United Teachers New York University Center for the Study of Asian American Health Partnership for New York City Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP 100% The Rockefeller Group SEIU 32BJ Signature Group Holdings, Inc. Tishman Speyer United Way of New York City Western Union
Pro Bono/In-Kind Supporters Alexis Pimentel Law Office Lawyers Alliance for New York Owen Pell and White & Case LLP Seyfarth Shaw LLP Sidley Austin LLP
65 Languages spoken by NYIC member organizations
2205 Attendees to NYIC’s immigration advocacy events, rallies, and trainings 16,475 College Guides for parents distributed (2,774 in English; 3,151 in Spanish; 10,550 in Chinese) 5%
436 Immigrant parents who attended a college workshop and learned their children can go to college
35,000 Voters contacted through the NYIC’s 2014 Immigrants Vote! Campaign
2013-14 NYIC Board of Directors
NYIC Staff
Angela Fernandez
Steven Choi, Esq.
Oriana Sanchez
Camille Mackler, Esq.
Laurie Smolenski
Elizabeth Plum
Kim Sykes
Jackie Vimo
Jonathan Vidal
Mubashar (Max) Ahmed
Samuel Palmer-Simon
Mayra Aldas-Deckert
Sara Rakita
Director of Legal Services Central American Refugee Center (CARECEN)
Murad Awawdeh
Thanu Yakupitiyage
Sandy Myers
Claudia Calhoon
Executive Director Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights
Annetta Seecharran Individual
Bakary Tandia
Case Manager and Policy Advocate African Services Committee
Carmen Maquilon
Director, Government & Community Relations Catholic Charities Community Services
Mae Lee
Director Chinese Progressive Association
Mohammed Razvi
Executive Director Council of Peoples Organization (COPO)
Director of Immigrant Service Catholic Charities Diocese of Rockville Center (CCRC)
Muzaffar Chishti
Elsie Saint Louis
Patrick Young
Executive Director Haitian-Americans United for Progress (HAUP)
Estela Vazquez
Executive Vice President Local 1199-SEIU
Gail Golden
Co-Chairwoman Rockland Immigration Coalition
Gonzalo Mercado Individual
%
5 Grace Shim
Executive Director MinKwon Center for Community Action
Graciela Heymann
Executive Director Westchester Hispanic Coalition
Guillermo Chacón
Director Migration Policy Institute at NYU School of Law
Government Relations Executive UJA-Federation of New York
Seema Agnani
Executive Director Chhaya CDC
Vladimir Epshteyn
President Russian-American Voters Educational League (RAVEL)
Wilfredo Larancuent
President of the Laundry Workers New York, New Jersey Joint Board Workers United
Executive Director
Director of Legal Initiatives DIrector of Special Projects Director of Regional Advocacy Senior Education Advocacy Associate Special Projects Associate Civic Engagement Coordinator Health Advocacy Senior Specialist
Manuel Castro
Immigration Campaign Organizer
Christina Chang
Immigration Advocacy Manager
Charlotte Gossett Navarro
Regional Outreach Senior Associate
Training and Legal Initiatives Associate % 2
Development Manager Manager of Education Advocacy Membership & Capacity Building Associate Legal Initiatives Coordinator Managing Director
Regional Outreach Associate
Juan J. Martinez-Hill
Linda Sarsour
Juan J. Ramírez
Special Projects Associate Senior Administrative and Operations Associate
Gillian Rowland-Kain Special Assistant
14,334 Identity documents issued since 2011 through the NYIC’s 60% Key to the City events 62 Counties in New York State with NYIC member organizations present, representing every county in the state
Claudia Cabrera
DACA Outreach Public Ally
Laura Rocío Celaya
NYIC Vista, Communications Projects and % Fundraising Fellow 100
Tea Tammistu
Francis Madi
Attendees since 2011 at the NYIC’s Key to the City events— a mobile, community-based initiative that provides immigrant families with vital consular identity documents, legal screenings, college readiness programming and more
NYIC Fellows
Silvia Gonzales
Administrative Manager
22,051
147 Individuals recruited to the NYIC’s Civilian Emergency Response Corps
Nancy Opuku
New Americans Volunteer Coordinator
26 Organizations who joined NYIC’s Civic Engagement Collaborative comprised of good government organizations, non-profit agencies, organizing groups and others
Communications Coordinator
Kiwi Grady
President Latino Commission on Aids Executive Director Arab American Association of New York
400 Press hits since January 2014
333,000 New American citizens that the NYIC and partners have registered to vote since 1998
NYIC’s Board pose with New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.
Luz Tavarez-Salazar
14 College Guide workshops presented to immigrant parents
NYIC Vista, Volunteer Coordinator Education Fellow Consultants:
Andrew Scherer Katherine Fennelly Melanie Reyes Christina Chang Karen Kaminsky Jacki Esposito Bessie Schachter
240 Individuals recruited to the NYIC’s general volunteer cohort
1,580 Volunteers who have supported individuals through 24 Superstorm Sandy recovery and/or immigration support service activities/events 124 Trainings conducted by the NYIC through our Immigrant Concerns Training Institute, serving a total of 3,084 people 6,352
Individuals (non-profit staff, community members, legal providers, government agency staff, and other public officials) reached through informational sessions, trainings, and community education events on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
26 DACA outreach providers coordinated by the NYIC—who through their outreach efforts referred more than 3,000 individuals to legal and literacy providers
241 Participants at health advocacy trainings and town hall meetings
Government and Foundation Supporters
Letter from the Executive Director & Board Chair
Altman Foundation Bernard F. and Alva B. Gimbel Foundation David Rockefeller Fund Donors Education Collaborative FJC - A Foundation of Philanthropic Funds Ford Foundation Four Freedoms Fund Fund for New Citizens GE Foundation JM Kaplan Fund Korean American Community Foundation M&T Charitable Foundation National Partnership for New Americans New York City Department of Education New York City Department of Youth and Community Development New York Community Trust New York Foundation New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services New York State Immigrant Action Fund New York State Office for New Americans North Star Fund O’Neill Foundation Open Society Foundations Robert Sterling Clark Foundation Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Rockefeller Brothers Fund Social Services Block Grants program Tiger Baron Foundation Twenty-First Century ILGWU Heritage Fund UJA - Federation of New York United Hospital Fund
60%
Dear Friends, What an incredibly exciting year it has been for the NYIC!
United for Justice and Opportunity
As of this writing, we are on the verge of seeing the President announce long-awaited administrative relief that will potentially open the door for millions of America’s immigrants to be protected from deportation and to work legally. This major victory has been the culmination of a twoyear effort of our statewide New Yorkers for Real Immigration Reform campaign, working with our national allies to push the President to take this historic step for immigrants. But we’ve been up to much more than that. Throughout 2014, we’ve continued to make real progress in reforms at many levels: helping win major victories in New York City such as a municipal ID and detainer reform; ensuring that immigrants can get affordable and quality health care; fighting for New York’s immigrant students to get the support they need; and lifting up immigrants’ voices in the 2014 elections through our Immigrants Vote! campaign. Along the way, we convened the first ever conference to coordinate broad legal services on the City and State level this June through the New York Immigrant Assistance Consortium (NYIAC), bringing together 300 community leaders to discuss how to prepare for administrative relief. Moving forward, we’ll play a lead role in ensuring that up to a quarter of a million New Yorkers can walk through this historic door of opportunity and get the work permits, drivers’ licenses and deportation protection they need. 2%
This 2014 Annual Report gives you a quick snapshot of the Coalition’s efforts this past year, and is dedicated to our members, our supporters, our allies. With your invaluable support, we’ve made big strides in 2014 —and are poised to take even bigger ones in 2015. Thank you for your commitment to building a better New York!
5%
Best,
100%
2014 Annual Report The New York Immigration Coalition 137-139 West 25th Street, 12th Floor New York, NY 10001
www.nyic.org 60%
Steven Choi Executive Director
Guillermo Chacón Board Chair
5%
Major Individual Supporters Luis Argueta Gerald Blume Suzette Brooks Masters Elizabeth Chandler May Chen Rockwell Chin James Cho Srimal Choi Young Choi Bradley Edmister Elizabeth Gilbert Dmitri Glinski Kevin Hackett 60% Graciela Heymann Michael Hirschhorn and Jimena Martinez Tony Hsu Caroline Katz Kenny, Carla and Julia Lee
Joan Malin Margaret McHugh John Osborn Chul Pak Betsy Palmieri Vanessa Perez Susan Plum Theodore Ruthizer Wynn Salisch Reshma Saujani and Nihal Mehta Andrew Scherer Michael Skolnik Margaret Smyth Lee Sung My Chi To Jaime Weisberg Pat Young
Notable Numbers 2014
Organizational and Corporate Supporters
1199 SEIU United Health Care Workers East African Services Committee AJC New York American Immigration Lawyers Association NY Chapter Asian American Bar Association of New York Bloomberg Philanthropies Campaign for Community Change / Center for Community Change Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Rockville Center Citi Community Development The City University of New York Community Service Society Con Edison Corporation for National and Community Service Davis Polk & Wardwell Debevoise & Plimpton LLP Deutsche Bank El Centro del Inmigrante Fried Frank Harris Shriver and Jacobson LLP Geller and Company Haitian Americans United for Progress Korean2%American Lawyers Association of Greater New York Labor Council for Latin American Advancement Latino Commission on AIDS Lehman College CUNY M&T Bank MinKwon Center for Community Action N. Cheng and Sons New York City Central Labor Council, AFL - CIO New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation New York City Labor Council for Latin American Advancement New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health New York State AFL - CIO New York State United Teachers New York University Center for the Study of Asian American Health Partnership for New York City Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP 100% The Rockefeller Group SEIU 32BJ Signature Group Holdings, Inc. Tishman Speyer United Way of New York City Western Union
Pro Bono/In-Kind Supporters Alexis Pimentel Law Office Lawyers Alliance for New York Owen Pell and White & Case LLP Seyfarth Shaw LLP Sidley Austin LLP
65 Languages spoken by NYIC member organizations
2205 Attendees to NYIC’s immigration advocacy events, rallies, and trainings 16,475 College Guides for parents distributed (2,774 in English; 3,151 in Spanish; 10,550 in Chinese) 5%
436 Immigrant parents who attended a college workshop and learned their children can go to college
35,000 Voters contacted through the NYIC’s 2014 Immigrants Vote! Campaign
2013-14 NYIC Board of Directors
NYIC Staff
Angela Fernandez
Steven Choi, Esq.
Oriana Sanchez
Camille Mackler, Esq.
Laurie Smolenski
Elizabeth Plum
Kim Sykes
Jackie Vimo
Jonathan Vidal
Mubashar (Max) Ahmed
Samuel Palmer-Simon
Mayra Aldas-Deckert
Sara Rakita
Director of Legal Services Central American Refugee Center (CARECEN)
Murad Awawdeh
Thanu Yakupitiyage
Sandy Myers
Claudia Calhoon
Executive Director Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights
Annetta Seecharran Individual
Bakary Tandia
Case Manager and Policy Advocate African Services Committee
Carmen Maquilon
Director, Government & Community Relations Catholic Charities Community Services
Mae Lee
Director Chinese Progressive Association
Mohammed Razvi
Executive Director Council of Peoples Organization (COPO)
Director of Immigrant Service Catholic Charities Diocese of Rockville Center (CCRC)
Muzaffar Chishti
Elsie Saint Louis
Patrick Young
Executive Director Haitian-Americans United for Progress (HAUP)
Estela Vazquez
Executive Vice President Local 1199-SEIU
Gail Golden
Co-Chairwoman Rockland Immigration Coalition
Gonzalo Mercado Individual
%
5 Grace Shim
Executive Director MinKwon Center for Community Action
Graciela Heymann
Executive Director Westchester Hispanic Coalition
Guillermo Chacón
Director Migration Policy Institute at NYU School of Law
Government Relations Executive UJA-Federation of New York
Seema Agnani
Executive Director Chhaya CDC
Vladimir Epshteyn
President Russian-American Voters Educational League (RAVEL)
Wilfredo Larancuent
President of the Laundry Workers New York, New Jersey Joint Board Workers United
Executive Director
Director of Legal Initiatives DIrector of Special Projects Director of Regional Advocacy Senior Education Advocacy Associate Special Projects Associate Civic Engagement Coordinator Health Advocacy Senior Specialist
Manuel Castro
Immigration Campaign Organizer
Christina Chang
Immigration Advocacy Manager
Charlotte Gossett Navarro
Regional Outreach Senior Associate
Training and Legal Initiatives Associate % 2
Development Manager Manager of Education Advocacy Membership & Capacity Building Associate Legal Initiatives Coordinator Managing Director
Regional Outreach Associate
Juan J. Martinez-Hill
Linda Sarsour
Juan J. Ramírez
Special Projects Associate Senior Administrative and Operations Associate
Gillian Rowland-Kain Special Assistant
14,334 Identity documents issued since 2011 through the NYIC’s 60% Key to the City events 62 Counties in New York State with NYIC member organizations present, representing every county in the state
Claudia Cabrera
DACA Outreach Public Ally
Laura Rocío Celaya
NYIC Vista, Communications Projects and % Fundraising Fellow 100
Tea Tammistu
Francis Madi
Attendees since 2011 at the NYIC’s Key to the City events— a mobile, community-based initiative that provides immigrant families with vital consular identity documents, legal screenings, college readiness programming and more
NYIC Fellows
Silvia Gonzales
Administrative Manager
22,051
147 Individuals recruited to the NYIC’s Civilian Emergency Response Corps
Nancy Opuku
New Americans Volunteer Coordinator
26 Organizations who joined NYIC’s Civic Engagement Collaborative comprised of good government organizations, non-profit agencies, organizing groups and others
Communications Coordinator
Kiwi Grady
President Latino Commission on Aids Executive Director Arab American Association of New York
400 Press hits since January 2014
333,000 New American citizens that the NYIC and partners have registered to vote since 1998
NYIC’s Board pose with New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.
Luz Tavarez-Salazar
14 College Guide workshops presented to immigrant parents
NYIC Vista, Volunteer Coordinator Education Fellow Consultants:
Andrew Scherer Katherine Fennelly Melanie Reyes Christina Chang Karen Kaminsky Jacki Esposito Bessie Schachter
240 Individuals recruited to the NYIC’s general volunteer cohort
1,580 Volunteers who have supported individuals through 24 Superstorm Sandy recovery and/or immigration support service activities/events 124 Trainings conducted by the NYIC through our Immigrant Concerns Training Institute, serving a total of 3,084 people 6,352
Individuals (non-profit staff, community members, legal providers, government agency staff, and other public officials) reached through informational sessions, trainings, and community education events on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
26 DACA outreach providers coordinated by the NYIC—who through their outreach efforts referred more than 3,000 individuals to legal and literacy providers
241 Participants at health advocacy trainings and town hall meetings
Government and Foundation Supporters
Letter from the Executive Director & Board Chair
Altman Foundation Bernard F. and Alva B. Gimbel Foundation David Rockefeller Fund Donors Education Collaborative FJC - A Foundation of Philanthropic Funds Ford Foundation Four Freedoms Fund Fund for New Citizens GE Foundation JM Kaplan Fund Korean American Community Foundation M&T Charitable Foundation National Partnership for New Americans New York City Department of Education New York City Department of Youth and Community Development New York Community Trust New York Foundation New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services New York State Immigrant Action Fund New York State Office for New Americans North Star Fund O’Neill Foundation Open Society Foundations Robert Sterling Clark Foundation Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Rockefeller Brothers Fund Social Services Block Grants program Tiger Baron Foundation Twenty-First Century ILGWU Heritage Fund UJA - Federation of New York United Hospital Fund
60%
Dear Friends, What an incredibly exciting year it has been for the NYIC!
United for Justice and Opportunity
As of this writing, we are on the verge of seeing the President announce long-awaited administrative relief that will potentially open the door for millions of America’s immigrants to be protected from deportation and to work legally. This major victory has been the culmination of a twoyear effort of our statewide New Yorkers for Real Immigration Reform campaign, working with our national allies to push the President to take this historic step for immigrants. But we’ve been up to much more than that. Throughout 2014, we’ve continued to make real progress in reforms at many levels: helping win major victories in New York City such as a municipal ID and detainer reform; ensuring that immigrants can get affordable and quality health care; fighting for New York’s immigrant students to get the support they need; and lifting up immigrants’ voices in the 2014 elections through our Immigrants Vote! campaign. Along the way, we convened the first ever conference to coordinate broad legal services on the City and State level this June through the New York Immigrant Assistance Consortium (NYIAC), bringing together 300 community leaders to discuss how to prepare for administrative relief. Moving forward, we’ll play a lead role in ensuring that up to a quarter of a million New Yorkers can walk through this historic door of opportunity and get the work permits, drivers’ licenses and deportation protection they need. 2%
This 2014 Annual Report gives you a quick snapshot of the Coalition’s efforts this past year, and is dedicated to our members, our supporters, our allies. With your invaluable support, we’ve made big strides in 2014 —and are poised to take even bigger ones in 2015. Thank you for your commitment to building a better New York!
5%
Best,
100%
2014 Annual Report The New York Immigration Coalition 137-139 West 25th Street, 12th Floor New York, NY 10001
www.nyic.org 60%
Steven Choi Executive Director
Guillermo Chacón Board Chair
5%
Major Individual Supporters Luis Argueta Gerald Blume Suzette Brooks Masters Elizabeth Chandler May Chen Rockwell Chin James Cho Srimal Choi Young Choi Bradley Edmister Elizabeth Gilbert Dmitri Glinski Kevin Hackett 60% Graciela Heymann Michael Hirschhorn and Jimena Martinez Tony Hsu Caroline Katz Kenny, Carla and Julia Lee
Joan Malin Margaret McHugh John Osborn Chul Pak Betsy Palmieri Vanessa Perez Susan Plum Theodore Ruthizer Wynn Salisch Reshma Saujani and Nihal Mehta Andrew Scherer Michael Skolnik Margaret Smyth Lee Sung My Chi To Jaime Weisberg Pat Young
Notable Numbers 2014
Organizational and Corporate Supporters
1199 SEIU United Health Care Workers East African Services Committee AJC New York American Immigration Lawyers Association NY Chapter Asian American Bar Association of New York Bloomberg Philanthropies Campaign for Community Change / Center for Community Change Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Rockville Center Citi Community Development The City University of New York Community Service Society Con Edison Corporation for National and Community Service Davis Polk & Wardwell Debevoise & Plimpton LLP Deutsche Bank El Centro del Inmigrante Fried Frank Harris Shriver and Jacobson LLP Geller and Company Haitian Americans United for Progress Korean2%American Lawyers Association of Greater New York Labor Council for Latin American Advancement Latino Commission on AIDS Lehman College CUNY M&T Bank MinKwon Center for Community Action N. Cheng and Sons New York City Central Labor Council, AFL - CIO New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation New York City Labor Council for Latin American Advancement New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health New York State AFL - CIO New York State United Teachers New York University Center for the Study of Asian American Health Partnership for New York City Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP 100% The Rockefeller Group SEIU 32BJ Signature Group Holdings, Inc. Tishman Speyer United Way of New York City Western Union
Pro Bono/In-Kind Supporters Alexis Pimentel Law Office Lawyers Alliance for New York Owen Pell and White & Case LLP Seyfarth Shaw LLP Sidley Austin LLP
65 Languages spoken by NYIC member organizations
2205 Attendees to NYIC’s immigration advocacy events, rallies, and trainings 16,475 College Guides for parents distributed (2,774 in English; 3,151 in Spanish; 10,550 in Chinese) 5%
436 Immigrant parents who attended a college workshop and learned their children can go to college
35,000 Voters contacted through the NYIC’s 2014 Immigrants Vote! Campaign
2013-14 NYIC Board of Directors
NYIC Staff
Angela Fernandez
Steven Choi, Esq.
Oriana Sanchez
Camille Mackler, Esq.
Laurie Smolenski
Elizabeth Plum
Kim Sykes
Jackie Vimo
Jonathan Vidal
Mubashar (Max) Ahmed
Samuel Palmer-Simon
Mayra Aldas-Deckert
Sara Rakita
Director of Legal Services Central American Refugee Center (CARECEN)
Murad Awawdeh
Thanu Yakupitiyage
Sandy Myers
Claudia Calhoon
Executive Director Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights
Annetta Seecharran Individual
Bakary Tandia
Case Manager and Policy Advocate African Services Committee
Carmen Maquilon
Director, Government & Community Relations Catholic Charities Community Services
Mae Lee
Director Chinese Progressive Association
Mohammed Razvi
Executive Director Council of Peoples Organization (COPO)
Director of Immigrant Service Catholic Charities Diocese of Rockville Center (CCRC)
Muzaffar Chishti
Elsie Saint Louis
Patrick Young
Executive Director Haitian-Americans United for Progress (HAUP)
Estela Vazquez
Executive Vice President Local 1199-SEIU
Gail Golden
Co-Chairwoman Rockland Immigration Coalition
Gonzalo Mercado Individual
%
5 Grace Shim
Executive Director MinKwon Center for Community Action
Graciela Heymann
Executive Director Westchester Hispanic Coalition
Guillermo Chacón
Director Migration Policy Institute at NYU School of Law
Government Relations Executive UJA-Federation of New York
Seema Agnani
Executive Director Chhaya CDC
Vladimir Epshteyn
President Russian-American Voters Educational League (RAVEL)
Wilfredo Larancuent
President of the Laundry Workers New York, New Jersey Joint Board Workers United
Executive Director
Director of Legal Initiatives DIrector of Special Projects Director of Regional Advocacy Senior Education Advocacy Associate Special Projects Associate Civic Engagement Coordinator Health Advocacy Senior Specialist
Manuel Castro
Immigration Campaign Organizer
Christina Chang
Immigration Advocacy Manager
Charlotte Gossett Navarro
Regional Outreach Senior Associate
Training and Legal Initiatives Associate % 2
Development Manager Manager of Education Advocacy Membership & Capacity Building Associate Legal Initiatives Coordinator Managing Director
Regional Outreach Associate
Juan J. Martinez-Hill
Linda Sarsour
Juan J. Ramírez
Special Projects Associate Senior Administrative and Operations Associate
Gillian Rowland-Kain Special Assistant
14,334 Identity documents issued since 2011 through the NYIC’s 60% Key to the City events 62 Counties in New York State with NYIC member organizations present, representing every county in the state
Claudia Cabrera
DACA Outreach Public Ally
Laura Rocío Celaya
NYIC Vista, Communications Projects and % Fundraising Fellow 100
Tea Tammistu
Francis Madi
Attendees since 2011 at the NYIC’s Key to the City events— a mobile, community-based initiative that provides immigrant families with vital consular identity documents, legal screenings, college readiness programming and more
NYIC Fellows
Silvia Gonzales
Administrative Manager
22,051
147 Individuals recruited to the NYIC’s Civilian Emergency Response Corps
Nancy Opuku
New Americans Volunteer Coordinator
26 Organizations who joined NYIC’s Civic Engagement Collaborative comprised of good government organizations, non-profit agencies, organizing groups and others
Communications Coordinator
Kiwi Grady
President Latino Commission on Aids Executive Director Arab American Association of New York
400 Press hits since January 2014
333,000 New American citizens that the NYIC and partners have registered to vote since 1998
NYIC’s Board pose with New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.
Luz Tavarez-Salazar
14 College Guide workshops presented to immigrant parents
NYIC Vista, Volunteer Coordinator Education Fellow Consultants:
Andrew Scherer Katherine Fennelly Melanie Reyes Christina Chang Karen Kaminsky Jacki Esposito Bessie Schachter
240 Individuals recruited to the NYIC’s general volunteer cohort
1,580 Volunteers who have supported individuals through 24 Superstorm Sandy recovery and/or immigration support service activities/events 124 Trainings conducted by the NYIC through our Immigrant Concerns Training Institute, serving a total of 3,084 people 6,352
Individuals (non-profit staff, community members, legal providers, government agency staff, and other public officials) reached through informational sessions, trainings, and community education events on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
26 DACA outreach providers coordinated by the NYIC—who through their outreach efforts referred more than 3,000 individuals to legal and literacy providers
241 Participants at health advocacy trainings and town hall meetings
NY: Provide Public Support for Immigrant Youth mo to
Andrew Cuo 1/13/14: DREAMers asked Gov. for the implementation et budg state the in ey include mon bill that would allow a Act, m Drea State of the New York state and meet the in g livin ts unauthorized immigran aid at universities. cial finan ss acce certain requirements, to
q January 2014: Unveiling NYIC’s 2014 Immigrant’s EQuality Agenda
2014 Highlights u Immigrant Advocates Respond To Cuomo’s 2014 Agenda With Goals Of Their Own
q January 2014: Drivers Licenses for All! u
1/10/14: “Immigrant advocates in New York have responded to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s State of the State address by announcing their own agenda for 2014. The Coalition has released its own ‘2014 Immigrant Equality Agenda’ containing ten policy items that advocates will continue to push for in New York. The 2014 Immigrant Equality Agenda also includes raising the minimum wage, promoting college readiness for English language learners and protection from harsh enforcement.”
Advocates Struggle to Reach Immigrants Eligible for Deferred Action December 2013 “…We need to do everything to maximize participation in the program,” said Steven Choi, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, a leading advocacy group in New York City.
t January 2014 & ONGOING: Reaching the “Hard-
to-Reach” undocumented youth population A new Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Initiative, supported by the City of New York, was created to conduct outreach, provide legal assistance, and expand adult education programming for young people who would qualify for DACA. The NYIC is leading the citywide outreach component of this effort, coordinating 26 outreach providers that are working in collaboration with 70 adult education and legal groups. Our outreach providers have done an exemplary job reaching out to “hard-to-reach” young undocumented immigrants to enroll them in DACA. Through their outreach efforts, we have referred more than 3,000 individuals to legal and literacy providers.
p January 2014: Fighting for the New York DREAM The NYIC remains unrelenting in our fight for expanding state financial aid to students regardless of immigration status. While NYS DREAM failed to pass the Senate this year, we are rebooting for next year’s campaign and won’t stop until After proposing this is official legislation in New York! municipal ID cards in February, 2014, Mayor Bill de Blasio signs Municipal ID Bill into law on on July 10th, 2014.
Consular IDs as a Middle Step to De Blasio’s City ID Plan
F ebruary 24, 2014 “Since 2011 the NYIC has organized 22 events, where undocumented immigrants could learn how to fill out taxes, open a bank account, and not get scammed by fake lawyers.” p u February 2014 & ONGOING ALL YEAR: NYIC’s Key to the City Program Extends Identification Documents and Services to Thousands The City Council-funded “Key to the City” Initiative has taken place in schools in each borough since 2011, organized by the NYIC in collaboration with schools, community partners, and the consulates of Mexico, El Salvador, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru, and the Dominican Republic. The Initiative promotes immigrant integration in a variety of ways: facilitating immigrant parent access to their children’s schools and to financial services by providing them with Councilmember Gale Brewer acceptable identity documents; offering joins NYIC’s Key to the City workshops on the college preparation events in East Harlem. process; providing DACA information, Translation: Consular legal screenings and referrals, adult IDs for Immigrants education programs; and offering assistance on filing taxes, among other in New York services. Most recently, the program is providing workshops for the Chinese community as well. In the past two-and-a-half years, 14,334 consular IDs and foreign passports have been distributed, and 22,051 community members provided with this broad range of services—a huge achievement for the betterment of New York immigrant communities!
q u February–July 2014: A New York City ID for All New Yorkers At the State of the City, Mayor Bill de Blasio made a historic announcement that he will support a New York City ID card for all New Yorkers regardless of immigration status—a huge victory for New York immigrant communities! Immigrants who lack access to a form of ID will be able to use this card to access libraries and municipal buildings, open bank accounts, sign leases, and much more! All year the NYIC worked as part of the New York City Municipal ID Coalition to ensure that the NYC Municipal ID card will have broad appeal and that immigrants and other vulnerable communities can access this ID safely. In January 2015 the card will be rolled out with multiple benefits and discounts for all New Yorkers, including a one-year membership at 33 of the City’s leading cultural institutions!
De Blasio Proposes Municipal ID Card Regardless of Immigration Status
According to the New York Immigration Coalition, the measure… will improve this community’s day-to-day lives. “You can go to the police and you can show this as proof of identification,” said Steven Choi, executive director of the NYIC. “You will be able to access certain city buildings. As a result of our advocacy, you can now go into public schools and be able to meet with your kids’ teachers.
y On April 10th, NYIC’s New York City membership met with City Council Members and the Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs to discuss our top priorities. In all, 56 individuals representing 29 NYIC member organizations participated in 21 legislative meetings to urge support for pressing issues including Municipal ID cards for all New Yorkers, educational equity for immigrant students, and health care for all. Our efforts were enormously successful! At a press conference on July 1st, NYIC was joined by Councilmember Menchaca to celebrate and discuss the City Council’s FY15 budget, which slated $10.3 million dollars for the expansion of programs and services for immigrant communities!
City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito meets with NYIC Board of Directors.
p q June 9, 2014: “This Land is Your Land Too”: The Inaugural Conference of the New York Immigrant Assistance Consortium On June 9th, the New York Immigrant Assistance Consortium, coordinated by the NYIC, held its inaugural conference “This Land is Your Land, Too: Working Together for Immigrant New Yorkers”. Nearly 300 immigrant advocates, legal service providers, government officials, and community members contributed to discussions on how to better coordinate support for New York’s immigrant communities. Sessions covered topics such as how to combat immigration fraud, prepare for administrative relief, and incorporate lessons from DACA, past legalization efforts, and other mass assistance efforts like those following Hurricane Sandy and 9/11.
Diverse New York Conference Discusses Immigrants Rights 6/11/14 Until now, there has been little coordination or constructive conversation among those stakeholders, but the recent “This Land is Your Land Too” conference in a packed Manhattan meeting hall aimed to change that. To help, the New York Immigration Coalition, which organized this conference, runs a government-funded program to train local grassroots advocates who are not attorneys.
Aiding New New Yorkers
Advocates to renew push for driver’s licenses for undocumented residents January 9, 2014 “The license issue affects immigrants without permanent residence in substantial ways and puts many at risk of detention and deportation after traffic stops for unlicensed and uninsured driving,” advocates said.
u March–April 2014: Affecting Change on the City Level On March 3rd, Councilmember Carlos Menchaca hosted NYIC’s legislative breakfast to inform the City of NYIC’s top priorities for the year. A panel of experts spoke about our top City agenda items, including immigration enforcement issues, and ensuring adequate resources for immigrant services such as ESL classes, legal services, and integration efforts.
Builders of the New New York AWARDS
3/22/14 State officials joined the New York Immigration Coalition to celebrate the anniversary of the establishment of the New York State Office for New Americans. Through the office, 27 “opportunity centers” were created in the state to make available quality legal help, English language training and entrepreneurship, organizers say. p q March 5, 2014: NYIC 17th Annual Immigrant Day of Action In another successful annual advocacy trip to Albany, 250 immigrants, workers, DREAMers, family members, and supporters from across the state converged on March 5th for the Coalition’s 17th Annual Immigrant Day of Action! Advocates representing over 40 organizations met with key allies in the State Assembly and Senate to push forward our 2014 Immigrant Equality Agenda.
p q March 18, 2014: Supporting Services for Immigrants Across New York State On March 18th, the NYIC held a press conference at the Albany Public Library with New York Secretary of State Cesar Perales to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Office for New Americans (ONA). Through ONA, 27 Opportunity Centers were created across New York to provide quality legal help, English–for-Speakersof-Other-Language (ESOL) training, and entrepreneurship support for New York State’s newcomers. The NYIC continues work with ONA and calls on the Governor to make even more resources available for this important statewide initiative!
10th Annual
500-plus New Yorkers joined a NYRIR rally at Foley Square on April 10th.
p q January 2014–MAY 2014: New Yorkers for Real Immigration Reform Phase I: Congress Must Act; Pass Immigration Reform New Yorkers for Real Immigration Reform (NYRIR), a campaign of 170 diverse community, faith, labor, and business groups, coordinated by the New York Immigration Coalition, intensified its efforts to hold Congress accountable to their inaction on immigration reform. Through May 2014, NYRIR held major actions including occupying Congressional offices in New York, meeting with representatives including Senator Schumer, and holding rallies in ley Fo in lly ra ds re Hund Washington D.C and New York. rights, nt ra ig m im r fo Every step of the way, New York Square bill to of e ag ss pa r fo push ID card immigrants shared their emotional l pa ici un m C stories of families torn apart by create NY tered by these deportation, imploring Congress 4/10/14 “We are bat angered by are we and ns to put an end to roadblocks and deportatio courage,” Steven of k lac ns’ cia liti pass immigration reform for the our po ector of the New dir ive cut exe oi, Ch benefit of the entire nation. n Coalition, which York Immigratio . ly, told the crowd coordinated the ral
p q May 2014: May Day Rally Focuses on Worker Rights and Immigrant Rights NYIC helped coordinate the historic May Day rally once again, calling on New Yorkers to unite against deportations plaguing immigrant communities!
May Day rally in NYC for workers’, immigrants’ rights
5/1/14 “Our communities are under attack,” said Steve Choi, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, citing deportation and the denied economic justice. “When immigrants and labor are united, we will fight for immigration reform.”
p t June 23, 2014: Honoring Leaders at Builders 2014
On June 23rd, we held our annual fundraising gala at the beautiful Capitale on the Bowery. This year we celebrated and honored contributions from several inspiring immigrant rights leaders including Jacques Brand, Chief Executive Officer of North America, Deutsche Bank; Eliseo Medina, International Secretary-Treasurer, SEIU; and Parkin Lee, Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer & Secretary, The Rockefeller Group. We also honored Robert Morgenthau, Former Manhattan District Attorney with a special Lifetime Achievement Award for his service to New York’s immigrant communities!
q u July–August 2014: Supporting Migrant Youth With nearly 50,000 unaccompanied minors detained at the U.S southern border fleeing severe violence in Central America this year, the NYIC immediately geared up to support close to 9,000 children arriving in New York. The NYIC created a statewide initiative, the “New York Unaccompanied Minors Working Group” to bring together legal service providers, health and education providers, state and local government to fashion a coordinated response to help these children. Among the challenges for Mayor’s Office of recently arrived youth Immigrant Affairs Nisha are accelerated court Agarwal speaks about hearings that leave little need for legal service time to obtain quality coordination to support legal representation. recently arrived youth The NYIC quickly at NYIC. mobilized Youth Assistance Fairs, free legal clinics for immigrant youth. Our free legal clinics have served close to 300 unaccompanied immigrant youth thus far.
Coordinan ayuda para los niños inmigrantes que llegan a Nueva York Translation: Coordinating Support for Child Migrants Arriving in New York 6/23/14 “Most of these kids come because they face violence including threat of death, said Steven Choi, executive director of the Coalition for Immigrants in New York , who leads the team called the “New York Unnacompained Minors Working Group” during a press conference to announce the efforts.
t Ongoing: PROTECTING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS AND SUPPORTING IMMIGRANT PARENTS Conducting cutting edge advocacy, the NYIC’s Education Advocacy Collaborative has worked tirelessly to educate the City and State on the needs of English Language Learners (ELLs) and immigrant parents—particularly around the issue of providing adequate interpretation services at schools and the obstacles that immigrant parents face when enrolling their children in school. In an effort to continue supporting immigrants parents, the NYIC continued its training series for New York immigrant parents on how to send their children to college by using our guide, “Your Children Can Go to College – Yes They Can!”. The guide has been translated into several new languages including Bengali, Arabic, and Haitian Creole! The NYIC and project partners have distributed 20,000 guides and reached approximately 1,500 parents over the last two years in multiple languages.
q August 2014: Combating Immigration Fraud In a huge victory for the NYIC and our partners, the Immigrant Assistance Service Enforcement Act was signed into law by Governor Cuomo. The bill, which provides new and increased protections for immigrants, was closely crafted by the NYIC with our member agencies and partners, and Assemblymember Marco Crespo and Senator Ruben Diaz. Steven Choi, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, said “We are proud to have worked closely with the Governor’s office and Assemblymember Crespo and Senator Diaz in crafting a bill that provides new protections against immigration fraud. We look forward to working with Maritza Mejia Ming, Chief, the Governor and the Office Kings County District Attorney for New Americans to build on Immigrant Fraud Unit speaks this legislation and ensure that warns about immigration scams New York is and tactics of “notarios.” invested in immigrant communities that will pay off in benefits for our entire State.” –in an August 6th press release from Governor Cuomo’s office.
t ongoing: NYIC’s Regional Advocacy The NYIC has expanded its reach by hiring regional advocacy coordinators to support our member groups in Westchester and Long Island! On October 16th, we worked with our partner agencies in Westchester and Lower Hudson Valley to respond to vicious political ads scapegoating immigrant communities. In Long Island, we are working to support our partners to hold County Executive Ed Mangano accountable to the executive orders he signed in 2013 guaranteeing free translation and interpretation to Limited-English Proficient (LEP) residents of Nassau County at county agencies.
u Ongoing: NYIC Training Institute As the state-designated trainer on Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) Accreditation and Recognition, the NYIC, with support from the Department of State’s Office for New Americans, develops an intensive 40-hour training to help non-profit groups qualify for BIA recognition and accreditation, expanding the corps of groups who are authorized and qualified to provide immigration legal assistance. This year, the NYIC conducted four intensive 40-hour BIA accreditation trainings. These week-long trainings, which include site visits to immigration court, mock trials, and visits to citizenship ceremonies, along with a substantive immigration law curriculum, take place across New York State.
What’s Next for Obamacare in New York?
9/29/14 “New York has an important opportunity to reach immigrants who may not have enrolled during the first open enrollment period,” said Claudia Calhoon, a health care specialist at the New York Immigration Coalition.
p q Ongoing: Advocating for Greater Access to Health Care NYIC’s Health Advocacy team made enormous strides this year from educating hundreds of immigrant New Yorkers on access to healthcare and enrollment options to lobbying the City to insure more eligible immigrants and boosting access to health care for the undocumented.
400 NYRIR members form a human chain outside 26 Federal Plaza, gaining significant media attention including coverage from CNN.
p q November 2014: Immigrants Vote! This year, the NYIC’s Immigrants Vote! campaign, made up of 10 active partner organizations, led an aggressive voter engagement program in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester county. This year, we contacted 20,000 immigrant voters and registered 12,000 voters in the lead up to midterm elections!
More Than 1,400 Immigrants Register to Vote After New York Voter Drive
A voter registration campaign underway by the New York Immigration Coalition saw over 1,400 new American immigrants sign up to vote over the past two weeks.
p q June–November 2014: New Yorkers for Real Immigration Reform Phase II: We’re “All In For Relief” As part of NYRIR, we shifted our campaign to call on President Obama to act where Congress has failed. With 1,100 deportations a day, NYRIR campaign members made an urgent call for executive action. Our message to the President: We can no longer wait while our communities suffer; you can provide administrative relief to stop unjust deportations and keep families together. Through sending postcards to the White House, thousands of calls, and several creative actions including a 350-person townhall to share our communities’ stories and a 400-person human chain around New York’s immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza, we successfully 300 people watch President Obama’s captured the administrative relief announcement at attention of the NYIC’s watch party on November 20th. White House.
NY: Provide Public Support for Immigrant Youth mo to
Andrew Cuo 1/13/14: DREAMers asked Gov. for the implementation et budg state the in ey include mon bill that would allow a Act, m Drea State of the New York state and meet the in g livin ts unauthorized immigran aid at universities. cial finan ss acce certain requirements, to
q January 2014: Unveiling NYIC’s 2014 Immigrant’s EQuality Agenda
2014 Highlights u Immigrant Advocates Respond To Cuomo’s 2014 Agenda With Goals Of Their Own
q January 2014: Drivers Licenses for All! u
1/10/14: “Immigrant advocates in New York have responded to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s State of the State address by announcing their own agenda for 2014. The Coalition has released its own ‘2014 Immigrant Equality Agenda’ containing ten policy items that advocates will continue to push for in New York. The 2014 Immigrant Equality Agenda also includes raising the minimum wage, promoting college readiness for English language learners and protection from harsh enforcement.”
Advocates Struggle to Reach Immigrants Eligible for Deferred Action December 2013 “…We need to do everything to maximize participation in the program,” said Steven Choi, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, a leading advocacy group in New York City.
t January 2014 & ONGOING: Reaching the “Hard-
to-Reach” undocumented youth population A new Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Initiative, supported by the City of New York, was created to conduct outreach, provide legal assistance, and expand adult education programming for young people who would qualify for DACA. The NYIC is leading the citywide outreach component of this effort, coordinating 26 outreach providers that are working in collaboration with 70 adult education and legal groups. Our outreach providers have done an exemplary job reaching out to “hard-to-reach” young undocumented immigrants to enroll them in DACA. Through their outreach efforts, we have referred more than 3,000 individuals to legal and literacy providers.
p January 2014: Fighting for the New York DREAM The NYIC remains unrelenting in our fight for expanding state financial aid to students regardless of immigration status. While NYS DREAM failed to pass the Senate this year, we are rebooting for next year’s campaign and won’t stop until After proposing this is official legislation in New York! municipal ID cards in February, 2014, Mayor Bill de Blasio signs Municipal ID Bill into law on on July 10th, 2014.
Consular IDs as a Middle Step to De Blasio’s City ID Plan
F ebruary 24, 2014 “Since 2011 the NYIC has organized 22 events, where undocumented immigrants could learn how to fill out taxes, open a bank account, and not get scammed by fake lawyers.” p u February 2014 & ONGOING ALL YEAR: NYIC’s Key to the City Program Extends Identification Documents and Services to Thousands The City Council-funded “Key to the City” Initiative has taken place in schools in each borough since 2011, organized by the NYIC in collaboration with schools, community partners, and the consulates of Mexico, El Salvador, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru, and the Dominican Republic. The Initiative promotes immigrant integration in a variety of ways: facilitating immigrant parent access to their children’s schools and to financial services by providing them with Councilmember Gale Brewer acceptable identity documents; offering joins NYIC’s Key to the City workshops on the college preparation events in East Harlem. process; providing DACA information, Translation: Consular legal screenings and referrals, adult IDs for Immigrants education programs; and offering assistance on filing taxes, among other in New York services. Most recently, the program is providing workshops for the Chinese community as well. In the past two-and-a-half years, 14,334 consular IDs and foreign passports have been distributed, and 22,051 community members provided with this broad range of services—a huge achievement for the betterment of New York immigrant communities!
q u February–July 2014: A New York City ID for All New Yorkers At the State of the City, Mayor Bill de Blasio made a historic announcement that he will support a New York City ID card for all New Yorkers regardless of immigration status—a huge victory for New York immigrant communities! Immigrants who lack access to a form of ID will be able to use this card to access libraries and municipal buildings, open bank accounts, sign leases, and much more! All year the NYIC worked as part of the New York City Municipal ID Coalition to ensure that the NYC Municipal ID card will have broad appeal and that immigrants and other vulnerable communities can access this ID safely. In January 2015 the card will be rolled out with multiple benefits and discounts for all New Yorkers, including a one-year membership at 33 of the City’s leading cultural institutions!
De Blasio Proposes Municipal ID Card Regardless of Immigration Status
According to the New York Immigration Coalition, the measure… will improve this community’s day-to-day lives. “You can go to the police and you can show this as proof of identification,” said Steven Choi, executive director of the NYIC. “You will be able to access certain city buildings. As a result of our advocacy, you can now go into public schools and be able to meet with your kids’ teachers.
y On April 10th, NYIC’s New York City membership met with City Council Members and the Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs to discuss our top priorities. In all, 56 individuals representing 29 NYIC member organizations participated in 21 legislative meetings to urge support for pressing issues including Municipal ID cards for all New Yorkers, educational equity for immigrant students, and health care for all. Our efforts were enormously successful! At a press conference on July 1st, NYIC was joined by Councilmember Menchaca to celebrate and discuss the City Council’s FY15 budget, which slated $10.3 million dollars for the expansion of programs and services for immigrant communities!
City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito meets with NYIC Board of Directors.
p q June 9, 2014: “This Land is Your Land Too”: The Inaugural Conference of the New York Immigrant Assistance Consortium On June 9th, the New York Immigrant Assistance Consortium, coordinated by the NYIC, held its inaugural conference “This Land is Your Land, Too: Working Together for Immigrant New Yorkers”. Nearly 300 immigrant advocates, legal service providers, government officials, and community members contributed to discussions on how to better coordinate support for New York’s immigrant communities. Sessions covered topics such as how to combat immigration fraud, prepare for administrative relief, and incorporate lessons from DACA, past legalization efforts, and other mass assistance efforts like those following Hurricane Sandy and 9/11.
Diverse New York Conference Discusses Immigrants Rights 6/11/14 Until now, there has been little coordination or constructive conversation among those stakeholders, but the recent “This Land is Your Land Too” conference in a packed Manhattan meeting hall aimed to change that. To help, the New York Immigration Coalition, which organized this conference, runs a government-funded program to train local grassroots advocates who are not attorneys.
Aiding New New Yorkers
Advocates to renew push for driver’s licenses for undocumented residents January 9, 2014 “The license issue affects immigrants without permanent residence in substantial ways and puts many at risk of detention and deportation after traffic stops for unlicensed and uninsured driving,” advocates said.
u March–April 2014: Affecting Change on the City Level On March 3rd, Councilmember Carlos Menchaca hosted NYIC’s legislative breakfast to inform the City of NYIC’s top priorities for the year. A panel of experts spoke about our top City agenda items, including immigration enforcement issues, and ensuring adequate resources for immigrant services such as ESL classes, legal services, and integration efforts.
Builders of the New New York AWARDS
3/22/14 State officials joined the New York Immigration Coalition to celebrate the anniversary of the establishment of the New York State Office for New Americans. Through the office, 27 “opportunity centers” were created in the state to make available quality legal help, English language training and entrepreneurship, organizers say. p q March 5, 2014: NYIC 17th Annual Immigrant Day of Action In another successful annual advocacy trip to Albany, 250 immigrants, workers, DREAMers, family members, and supporters from across the state converged on March 5th for the Coalition’s 17th Annual Immigrant Day of Action! Advocates representing over 40 organizations met with key allies in the State Assembly and Senate to push forward our 2014 Immigrant Equality Agenda.
p q March 18, 2014: Supporting Services for Immigrants Across New York State On March 18th, the NYIC held a press conference at the Albany Public Library with New York Secretary of State Cesar Perales to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Office for New Americans (ONA). Through ONA, 27 Opportunity Centers were created across New York to provide quality legal help, English–for-Speakersof-Other-Language (ESOL) training, and entrepreneurship support for New York State’s newcomers. The NYIC continues work with ONA and calls on the Governor to make even more resources available for this important statewide initiative!
10th Annual
500-plus New Yorkers joined a NYRIR rally at Foley Square on April 10th.
p q January 2014–MAY 2014: New Yorkers for Real Immigration Reform Phase I: Congress Must Act; Pass Immigration Reform New Yorkers for Real Immigration Reform (NYRIR), a campaign of 170 diverse community, faith, labor, and business groups, coordinated by the New York Immigration Coalition, intensified its efforts to hold Congress accountable to their inaction on immigration reform. Through May 2014, NYRIR held major actions including occupying Congressional offices in New York, meeting with representatives including Senator Schumer, and holding rallies in ley Fo in lly ra ds re Hund Washington D.C and New York. rights, nt ra ig m im r fo Every step of the way, New York Square bill to of e ag ss pa r fo push ID card immigrants shared their emotional l pa ici un m C stories of families torn apart by create NY tered by these deportation, imploring Congress 4/10/14 “We are bat angered by are we and ns to put an end to roadblocks and deportatio courage,” Steven of k lac ns’ cia liti pass immigration reform for the our po ector of the New dir ive cut exe oi, Ch benefit of the entire nation. n Coalition, which York Immigratio . ly, told the crowd coordinated the ral
p q May 2014: May Day Rally Focuses on Worker Rights and Immigrant Rights NYIC helped coordinate the historic May Day rally once again, calling on New Yorkers to unite against deportations plaguing immigrant communities!
May Day rally in NYC for workers’, immigrants’ rights
5/1/14 “Our communities are under attack,” said Steve Choi, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, citing deportation and the denied economic justice. “When immigrants and labor are united, we will fight for immigration reform.”
p t June 23, 2014: Honoring Leaders at Builders 2014
On June 23rd, we held our annual fundraising gala at the beautiful Capitale on the Bowery. This year we celebrated and honored contributions from several inspiring immigrant rights leaders including Jacques Brand, Chief Executive Officer of North America, Deutsche Bank; Eliseo Medina, International Secretary-Treasurer, SEIU; and Parkin Lee, Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer & Secretary, The Rockefeller Group. We also honored Robert Morgenthau, Former Manhattan District Attorney with a special Lifetime Achievement Award for his service to New York’s immigrant communities!
q u July–August 2014: Supporting Migrant Youth With nearly 50,000 unaccompanied minors detained at the U.S southern border fleeing severe violence in Central America this year, the NYIC immediately geared up to support close to 9,000 children arriving in New York. The NYIC created a statewide initiative, the “New York Unaccompanied Minors Working Group” to bring together legal service providers, health and education providers, state and local government to fashion a coordinated response to help these children. Among the challenges for Mayor’s Office of recently arrived youth Immigrant Affairs Nisha are accelerated court Agarwal speaks about hearings that leave little need for legal service time to obtain quality coordination to support legal representation. recently arrived youth The NYIC quickly at NYIC. mobilized Youth Assistance Fairs, free legal clinics for immigrant youth. Our free legal clinics have served close to 300 unaccompanied immigrant youth thus far.
Coordinan ayuda para los niños inmigrantes que llegan a Nueva York Translation: Coordinating Support for Child Migrants Arriving in New York 6/23/14 “Most of these kids come because they face violence including threat of death, said Steven Choi, executive director of the Coalition for Immigrants in New York , who leads the team called the “New York Unnacompained Minors Working Group” during a press conference to announce the efforts.
t Ongoing: PROTECTING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS AND SUPPORTING IMMIGRANT PARENTS Conducting cutting edge advocacy, the NYIC’s Education Advocacy Collaborative has worked tirelessly to educate the City and State on the needs of English Language Learners (ELLs) and immigrant parents—particularly around the issue of providing adequate interpretation services at schools and the obstacles that immigrant parents face when enrolling their children in school. In an effort to continue supporting immigrants parents, the NYIC continued its training series for New York immigrant parents on how to send their children to college by using our guide, “Your Children Can Go to College – Yes They Can!”. The guide has been translated into several new languages including Bengali, Arabic, and Haitian Creole! The NYIC and project partners have distributed 20,000 guides and reached approximately 1,500 parents over the last two years in multiple languages.
q August 2014: Combating Immigration Fraud In a huge victory for the NYIC and our partners, the Immigrant Assistance Service Enforcement Act was signed into law by Governor Cuomo. The bill, which provides new and increased protections for immigrants, was closely crafted by the NYIC with our member agencies and partners, and Assemblymember Marco Crespo and Senator Ruben Diaz. Steven Choi, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, said “We are proud to have worked closely with the Governor’s office and Assemblymember Crespo and Senator Diaz in crafting a bill that provides new protections against immigration fraud. We look forward to working with Maritza Mejia Ming, Chief, the Governor and the Office Kings County District Attorney for New Americans to build on Immigrant Fraud Unit speaks this legislation and ensure that warns about immigration scams New York is and tactics of “notarios.” invested in immigrant communities that will pay off in benefits for our entire State.” –in an August 6th press release from Governor Cuomo’s office.
t ongoing: NYIC’s Regional Advocacy The NYIC has expanded its reach by hiring regional advocacy coordinators to support our member groups in Westchester and Long Island! On October 16th, we worked with our partner agencies in Westchester and Lower Hudson Valley to respond to vicious political ads scapegoating immigrant communities. In Long Island, we are working to support our partners to hold County Executive Ed Mangano accountable to the executive orders he signed in 2013 guaranteeing free translation and interpretation to Limited-English Proficient (LEP) residents of Nassau County at county agencies.
u Ongoing: NYIC Training Institute As the state-designated trainer on Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) Accreditation and Recognition, the NYIC, with support from the Department of State’s Office for New Americans, develops an intensive 40-hour training to help non-profit groups qualify for BIA recognition and accreditation, expanding the corps of groups who are authorized and qualified to provide immigration legal assistance. This year, the NYIC conducted four intensive 40-hour BIA accreditation trainings. These week-long trainings, which include site visits to immigration court, mock trials, and visits to citizenship ceremonies, along with a substantive immigration law curriculum, take place across New York State.
What’s Next for Obamacare in New York?
9/29/14 “New York has an important opportunity to reach immigrants who may not have enrolled during the first open enrollment period,” said Claudia Calhoon, a health care specialist at the New York Immigration Coalition.
p q Ongoing: Advocating for Greater Access to Health Care NYIC’s Health Advocacy team made enormous strides this year from educating hundreds of immigrant New Yorkers on access to healthcare and enrollment options to lobbying the City to insure more eligible immigrants and boosting access to health care for the undocumented.
400 NYRIR members form a human chain outside 26 Federal Plaza, gaining significant media attention including coverage from CNN.
p q November 2014: Immigrants Vote! This year, the NYIC’s Immigrants Vote! campaign, made up of 10 active partner organizations, led an aggressive voter engagement program in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester county. This year, we contacted 20,000 immigrant voters and registered 12,000 voters in the lead up to midterm elections!
More Than 1,400 Immigrants Register to Vote After New York Voter Drive
A voter registration campaign underway by the New York Immigration Coalition saw over 1,400 new American immigrants sign up to vote over the past two weeks.
p q June–November 2014: New Yorkers for Real Immigration Reform Phase II: We’re “All In For Relief” As part of NYRIR, we shifted our campaign to call on President Obama to act where Congress has failed. With 1,100 deportations a day, NYRIR campaign members made an urgent call for executive action. Our message to the President: We can no longer wait while our communities suffer; you can provide administrative relief to stop unjust deportations and keep families together. Through sending postcards to the White House, thousands of calls, and several creative actions including a 350-person townhall to share our communities’ stories and a 400-person human chain around New York’s immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza, we successfully 300 people watch President Obama’s captured the administrative relief announcement at attention of the NYIC’s watch party on November 20th. White House.
NY: Provide Public Support for Immigrant Youth mo to
Andrew Cuo 1/13/14: DREAMers asked Gov. for the implementation et budg state the in ey include mon bill that would allow a Act, m Drea State of the New York state and meet the in g livin ts unauthorized immigran aid at universities. cial finan ss acce certain requirements, to
q January 2014: Unveiling NYIC’s 2014 Immigrant’s EQuality Agenda
2014 Highlights u Immigrant Advocates Respond To Cuomo’s 2014 Agenda With Goals Of Their Own
q January 2014: Drivers Licenses for All! u
1/10/14: “Immigrant advocates in New York have responded to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s State of the State address by announcing their own agenda for 2014. The Coalition has released its own ‘2014 Immigrant Equality Agenda’ containing ten policy items that advocates will continue to push for in New York. The 2014 Immigrant Equality Agenda also includes raising the minimum wage, promoting college readiness for English language learners and protection from harsh enforcement.”
Advocates Struggle to Reach Immigrants Eligible for Deferred Action December 2013 “…We need to do everything to maximize participation in the program,” said Steven Choi, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, a leading advocacy group in New York City.
t January 2014 & ONGOING: Reaching the “Hard-
to-Reach” undocumented youth population A new Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Initiative, supported by the City of New York, was created to conduct outreach, provide legal assistance, and expand adult education programming for young people who would qualify for DACA. The NYIC is leading the citywide outreach component of this effort, coordinating 26 outreach providers that are working in collaboration with 70 adult education and legal groups. Our outreach providers have done an exemplary job reaching out to “hard-to-reach” young undocumented immigrants to enroll them in DACA. Through their outreach efforts, we have referred more than 3,000 individuals to legal and literacy providers.
p January 2014: Fighting for the New York DREAM The NYIC remains unrelenting in our fight for expanding state financial aid to students regardless of immigration status. While NYS DREAM failed to pass the Senate this year, we are rebooting for next year’s campaign and won’t stop until After proposing this is official legislation in New York! municipal ID cards in February, 2014, Mayor Bill de Blasio signs Municipal ID Bill into law on on July 10th, 2014.
Consular IDs as a Middle Step to De Blasio’s City ID Plan
F ebruary 24, 2014 “Since 2011 the NYIC has organized 22 events, where undocumented immigrants could learn how to fill out taxes, open a bank account, and not get scammed by fake lawyers.” p u February 2014 & ONGOING ALL YEAR: NYIC’s Key to the City Program Extends Identification Documents and Services to Thousands The City Council-funded “Key to the City” Initiative has taken place in schools in each borough since 2011, organized by the NYIC in collaboration with schools, community partners, and the consulates of Mexico, El Salvador, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru, and the Dominican Republic. The Initiative promotes immigrant integration in a variety of ways: facilitating immigrant parent access to their children’s schools and to financial services by providing them with Councilmember Gale Brewer acceptable identity documents; offering joins NYIC’s Key to the City workshops on the college preparation events in East Harlem. process; providing DACA information, Translation: Consular legal screenings and referrals, adult IDs for Immigrants education programs; and offering assistance on filing taxes, among other in New York services. Most recently, the program is providing workshops for the Chinese community as well. In the past two-and-a-half years, 14,334 consular IDs and foreign passports have been distributed, and 22,051 community members provided with this broad range of services—a huge achievement for the betterment of New York immigrant communities!
q u February–July 2014: A New York City ID for All New Yorkers At the State of the City, Mayor Bill de Blasio made a historic announcement that he will support a New York City ID card for all New Yorkers regardless of immigration status—a huge victory for New York immigrant communities! Immigrants who lack access to a form of ID will be able to use this card to access libraries and municipal buildings, open bank accounts, sign leases, and much more! All year the NYIC worked as part of the New York City Municipal ID Coalition to ensure that the NYC Municipal ID card will have broad appeal and that immigrants and other vulnerable communities can access this ID safely. In January 2015 the card will be rolled out with multiple benefits and discounts for all New Yorkers, including a one-year membership at 33 of the City’s leading cultural institutions!
De Blasio Proposes Municipal ID Card Regardless of Immigration Status
According to the New York Immigration Coalition, the measure… will improve this community’s day-to-day lives. “You can go to the police and you can show this as proof of identification,” said Steven Choi, executive director of the NYIC. “You will be able to access certain city buildings. As a result of our advocacy, you can now go into public schools and be able to meet with your kids’ teachers.
y On April 10th, NYIC’s New York City membership met with City Council Members and the Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs to discuss our top priorities. In all, 56 individuals representing 29 NYIC member organizations participated in 21 legislative meetings to urge support for pressing issues including Municipal ID cards for all New Yorkers, educational equity for immigrant students, and health care for all. Our efforts were enormously successful! At a press conference on July 1st, NYIC was joined by Councilmember Menchaca to celebrate and discuss the City Council’s FY15 budget, which slated $10.3 million dollars for the expansion of programs and services for immigrant communities!
City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito meets with NYIC Board of Directors.
p q June 9, 2014: “This Land is Your Land Too”: The Inaugural Conference of the New York Immigrant Assistance Consortium On June 9th, the New York Immigrant Assistance Consortium, coordinated by the NYIC, held its inaugural conference “This Land is Your Land, Too: Working Together for Immigrant New Yorkers”. Nearly 300 immigrant advocates, legal service providers, government officials, and community members contributed to discussions on how to better coordinate support for New York’s immigrant communities. Sessions covered topics such as how to combat immigration fraud, prepare for administrative relief, and incorporate lessons from DACA, past legalization efforts, and other mass assistance efforts like those following Hurricane Sandy and 9/11.
Diverse New York Conference Discusses Immigrants Rights 6/11/14 Until now, there has been little coordination or constructive conversation among those stakeholders, but the recent “This Land is Your Land Too” conference in a packed Manhattan meeting hall aimed to change that. To help, the New York Immigration Coalition, which organized this conference, runs a government-funded program to train local grassroots advocates who are not attorneys.
Aiding New New Yorkers
Advocates to renew push for driver’s licenses for undocumented residents January 9, 2014 “The license issue affects immigrants without permanent residence in substantial ways and puts many at risk of detention and deportation after traffic stops for unlicensed and uninsured driving,” advocates said.
u March–April 2014: Affecting Change on the City Level On March 3rd, Councilmember Carlos Menchaca hosted NYIC’s legislative breakfast to inform the City of NYIC’s top priorities for the year. A panel of experts spoke about our top City agenda items, including immigration enforcement issues, and ensuring adequate resources for immigrant services such as ESL classes, legal services, and integration efforts.
Builders of the New New York AWARDS
3/22/14 State officials joined the New York Immigration Coalition to celebrate the anniversary of the establishment of the New York State Office for New Americans. Through the office, 27 “opportunity centers” were created in the state to make available quality legal help, English language training and entrepreneurship, organizers say. p q March 5, 2014: NYIC 17th Annual Immigrant Day of Action In another successful annual advocacy trip to Albany, 250 immigrants, workers, DREAMers, family members, and supporters from across the state converged on March 5th for the Coalition’s 17th Annual Immigrant Day of Action! Advocates representing over 40 organizations met with key allies in the State Assembly and Senate to push forward our 2014 Immigrant Equality Agenda.
p q March 18, 2014: Supporting Services for Immigrants Across New York State On March 18th, the NYIC held a press conference at the Albany Public Library with New York Secretary of State Cesar Perales to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Office for New Americans (ONA). Through ONA, 27 Opportunity Centers were created across New York to provide quality legal help, English–for-Speakersof-Other-Language (ESOL) training, and entrepreneurship support for New York State’s newcomers. The NYIC continues work with ONA and calls on the Governor to make even more resources available for this important statewide initiative!
10th Annual
500-plus New Yorkers joined a NYRIR rally at Foley Square on April 10th.
p q January 2014–MAY 2014: New Yorkers for Real Immigration Reform Phase I: Congress Must Act; Pass Immigration Reform New Yorkers for Real Immigration Reform (NYRIR), a campaign of 170 diverse community, faith, labor, and business groups, coordinated by the New York Immigration Coalition, intensified its efforts to hold Congress accountable to their inaction on immigration reform. Through May 2014, NYRIR held major actions including occupying Congressional offices in New York, meeting with representatives including Senator Schumer, and holding rallies in ley Fo in lly ra ds re Hund Washington D.C and New York. rights, nt ra ig m im r fo Every step of the way, New York Square bill to of e ag ss pa r fo push ID card immigrants shared their emotional l pa ici un m C stories of families torn apart by create NY tered by these deportation, imploring Congress 4/10/14 “We are bat angered by are we and ns to put an end to roadblocks and deportatio courage,” Steven of k lac ns’ cia liti pass immigration reform for the our po ector of the New dir ive cut exe oi, Ch benefit of the entire nation. n Coalition, which York Immigratio . ly, told the crowd coordinated the ral
p q May 2014: May Day Rally Focuses on Worker Rights and Immigrant Rights NYIC helped coordinate the historic May Day rally once again, calling on New Yorkers to unite against deportations plaguing immigrant communities!
May Day rally in NYC for workers’, immigrants’ rights
5/1/14 “Our communities are under attack,” said Steve Choi, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, citing deportation and the denied economic justice. “When immigrants and labor are united, we will fight for immigration reform.”
p t June 23, 2014: Honoring Leaders at Builders 2014
On June 23rd, we held our annual fundraising gala at the beautiful Capitale on the Bowery. This year we celebrated and honored contributions from several inspiring immigrant rights leaders including Jacques Brand, Chief Executive Officer of North America, Deutsche Bank; Eliseo Medina, International Secretary-Treasurer, SEIU; and Parkin Lee, Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer & Secretary, The Rockefeller Group. We also honored Robert Morgenthau, Former Manhattan District Attorney with a special Lifetime Achievement Award for his service to New York’s immigrant communities!
q u July–August 2014: Supporting Migrant Youth With nearly 50,000 unaccompanied minors detained at the U.S southern border fleeing severe violence in Central America this year, the NYIC immediately geared up to support close to 9,000 children arriving in New York. The NYIC created a statewide initiative, the “New York Unaccompanied Minors Working Group” to bring together legal service providers, health and education providers, state and local government to fashion a coordinated response to help these children. Among the challenges for Mayor’s Office of recently arrived youth Immigrant Affairs Nisha are accelerated court Agarwal speaks about hearings that leave little need for legal service time to obtain quality coordination to support legal representation. recently arrived youth The NYIC quickly at NYIC. mobilized Youth Assistance Fairs, free legal clinics for immigrant youth. Our free legal clinics have served close to 300 unaccompanied immigrant youth thus far.
Coordinan ayuda para los niños inmigrantes que llegan a Nueva York Translation: Coordinating Support for Child Migrants Arriving in New York 6/23/14 “Most of these kids come because they face violence including threat of death, said Steven Choi, executive director of the Coalition for Immigrants in New York , who leads the team called the “New York Unnacompained Minors Working Group” during a press conference to announce the efforts.
t Ongoing: PROTECTING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS AND SUPPORTING IMMIGRANT PARENTS Conducting cutting edge advocacy, the NYIC’s Education Advocacy Collaborative has worked tirelessly to educate the City and State on the needs of English Language Learners (ELLs) and immigrant parents—particularly around the issue of providing adequate interpretation services at schools and the obstacles that immigrant parents face when enrolling their children in school. In an effort to continue supporting immigrants parents, the NYIC continued its training series for New York immigrant parents on how to send their children to college by using our guide, “Your Children Can Go to College – Yes They Can!”. The guide has been translated into several new languages including Bengali, Arabic, and Haitian Creole! The NYIC and project partners have distributed 20,000 guides and reached approximately 1,500 parents over the last two years in multiple languages.
q August 2014: Combating Immigration Fraud In a huge victory for the NYIC and our partners, the Immigrant Assistance Service Enforcement Act was signed into law by Governor Cuomo. The bill, which provides new and increased protections for immigrants, was closely crafted by the NYIC with our member agencies and partners, and Assemblymember Marco Crespo and Senator Ruben Diaz. Steven Choi, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, said “We are proud to have worked closely with the Governor’s office and Assemblymember Crespo and Senator Diaz in crafting a bill that provides new protections against immigration fraud. We look forward to working with Maritza Mejia Ming, Chief, the Governor and the Office Kings County District Attorney for New Americans to build on Immigrant Fraud Unit speaks this legislation and ensure that warns about immigration scams New York is and tactics of “notarios.” invested in immigrant communities that will pay off in benefits for our entire State.” –in an August 6th press release from Governor Cuomo’s office.
t ongoing: NYIC’s Regional Advocacy The NYIC has expanded its reach by hiring regional advocacy coordinators to support our member groups in Westchester and Long Island! On October 16th, we worked with our partner agencies in Westchester and Lower Hudson Valley to respond to vicious political ads scapegoating immigrant communities. In Long Island, we are working to support our partners to hold County Executive Ed Mangano accountable to the executive orders he signed in 2013 guaranteeing free translation and interpretation to Limited-English Proficient (LEP) residents of Nassau County at county agencies.
u Ongoing: NYIC Training Institute As the state-designated trainer on Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) Accreditation and Recognition, the NYIC, with support from the Department of State’s Office for New Americans, develops an intensive 40-hour training to help non-profit groups qualify for BIA recognition and accreditation, expanding the corps of groups who are authorized and qualified to provide immigration legal assistance. This year, the NYIC conducted four intensive 40-hour BIA accreditation trainings. These week-long trainings, which include site visits to immigration court, mock trials, and visits to citizenship ceremonies, along with a substantive immigration law curriculum, take place across New York State.
What’s Next for Obamacare in New York?
9/29/14 “New York has an important opportunity to reach immigrants who may not have enrolled during the first open enrollment period,” said Claudia Calhoon, a health care specialist at the New York Immigration Coalition.
p q Ongoing: Advocating for Greater Access to Health Care NYIC’s Health Advocacy team made enormous strides this year from educating hundreds of immigrant New Yorkers on access to healthcare and enrollment options to lobbying the City to insure more eligible immigrants and boosting access to health care for the undocumented.
400 NYRIR members form a human chain outside 26 Federal Plaza, gaining significant media attention including coverage from CNN.
p q November 2014: Immigrants Vote! This year, the NYIC’s Immigrants Vote! campaign, made up of 10 active partner organizations, led an aggressive voter engagement program in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester county. This year, we contacted 20,000 immigrant voters and registered 12,000 voters in the lead up to midterm elections!
More Than 1,400 Immigrants Register to Vote After New York Voter Drive
A voter registration campaign underway by the New York Immigration Coalition saw over 1,400 new American immigrants sign up to vote over the past two weeks.
p q June–November 2014: New Yorkers for Real Immigration Reform Phase II: We’re “All In For Relief” As part of NYRIR, we shifted our campaign to call on President Obama to act where Congress has failed. With 1,100 deportations a day, NYRIR campaign members made an urgent call for executive action. Our message to the President: We can no longer wait while our communities suffer; you can provide administrative relief to stop unjust deportations and keep families together. Through sending postcards to the White House, thousands of calls, and several creative actions including a 350-person townhall to share our communities’ stories and a 400-person human chain around New York’s immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza, we successfully 300 people watch President Obama’s captured the administrative relief announcement at attention of the NYIC’s watch party on November 20th. White House.
NY: Provide Public Support for Immigrant Youth mo to
Andrew Cuo 1/13/14: DREAMers asked Gov. for the implementation et budg state the in ey include mon bill that would allow a Act, m Drea State of the New York state and meet the in g livin ts unauthorized immigran aid at universities. cial finan ss acce certain requirements, to
q January 2014: Unveiling NYIC’s 2014 Immigrant’s EQuality Agenda
2014 Highlights u Immigrant Advocates Respond To Cuomo’s 2014 Agenda With Goals Of Their Own
q January 2014: Drivers Licenses for All! u
1/10/14: “Immigrant advocates in New York have responded to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s State of the State address by announcing their own agenda for 2014. The Coalition has released its own ‘2014 Immigrant Equality Agenda’ containing ten policy items that advocates will continue to push for in New York. The 2014 Immigrant Equality Agenda also includes raising the minimum wage, promoting college readiness for English language learners and protection from harsh enforcement.”
Advocates Struggle to Reach Immigrants Eligible for Deferred Action December 2013 “…We need to do everything to maximize participation in the program,” said Steven Choi, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, a leading advocacy group in New York City.
t January 2014 & ONGOING: Reaching the “Hard-
to-Reach” undocumented youth population A new Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Initiative, supported by the City of New York, was created to conduct outreach, provide legal assistance, and expand adult education programming for young people who would qualify for DACA. The NYIC is leading the citywide outreach component of this effort, coordinating 26 outreach providers that are working in collaboration with 70 adult education and legal groups. Our outreach providers have done an exemplary job reaching out to “hard-to-reach” young undocumented immigrants to enroll them in DACA. Through their outreach efforts, we have referred more than 3,000 individuals to legal and literacy providers.
p January 2014: Fighting for the New York DREAM The NYIC remains unrelenting in our fight for expanding state financial aid to students regardless of immigration status. While NYS DREAM failed to pass the Senate this year, we are rebooting for next year’s campaign and won’t stop until After proposing this is official legislation in New York! municipal ID cards in February, 2014, Mayor Bill de Blasio signs Municipal ID Bill into law on on July 10th, 2014.
Consular IDs as a Middle Step to De Blasio’s City ID Plan
F ebruary 24, 2014 “Since 2011 the NYIC has organized 22 events, where undocumented immigrants could learn how to fill out taxes, open a bank account, and not get scammed by fake lawyers.” p u February 2014 & ONGOING ALL YEAR: NYIC’s Key to the City Program Extends Identification Documents and Services to Thousands The City Council-funded “Key to the City” Initiative has taken place in schools in each borough since 2011, organized by the NYIC in collaboration with schools, community partners, and the consulates of Mexico, El Salvador, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru, and the Dominican Republic. The Initiative promotes immigrant integration in a variety of ways: facilitating immigrant parent access to their children’s schools and to financial services by providing them with Councilmember Gale Brewer acceptable identity documents; offering joins NYIC’s Key to the City workshops on the college preparation events in East Harlem. process; providing DACA information, Translation: Consular legal screenings and referrals, adult IDs for Immigrants education programs; and offering assistance on filing taxes, among other in New York services. Most recently, the program is providing workshops for the Chinese community as well. In the past two-and-a-half years, 14,334 consular IDs and foreign passports have been distributed, and 22,051 community members provided with this broad range of services—a huge achievement for the betterment of New York immigrant communities!
q u February–July 2014: A New York City ID for All New Yorkers At the State of the City, Mayor Bill de Blasio made a historic announcement that he will support a New York City ID card for all New Yorkers regardless of immigration status—a huge victory for New York immigrant communities! Immigrants who lack access to a form of ID will be able to use this card to access libraries and municipal buildings, open bank accounts, sign leases, and much more! All year the NYIC worked as part of the New York City Municipal ID Coalition to ensure that the NYC Municipal ID card will have broad appeal and that immigrants and other vulnerable communities can access this ID safely. In January 2015 the card will be rolled out with multiple benefits and discounts for all New Yorkers, including a one-year membership at 33 of the City’s leading cultural institutions!
De Blasio Proposes Municipal ID Card Regardless of Immigration Status
According to the New York Immigration Coalition, the measure… will improve this community’s day-to-day lives. “You can go to the police and you can show this as proof of identification,” said Steven Choi, executive director of the NYIC. “You will be able to access certain city buildings. As a result of our advocacy, you can now go into public schools and be able to meet with your kids’ teachers.
y On April 10th, NYIC’s New York City membership met with City Council Members and the Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs to discuss our top priorities. In all, 56 individuals representing 29 NYIC member organizations participated in 21 legislative meetings to urge support for pressing issues including Municipal ID cards for all New Yorkers, educational equity for immigrant students, and health care for all. Our efforts were enormously successful! At a press conference on July 1st, NYIC was joined by Councilmember Menchaca to celebrate and discuss the City Council’s FY15 budget, which slated $10.3 million dollars for the expansion of programs and services for immigrant communities!
City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito meets with NYIC Board of Directors.
p q June 9, 2014: “This Land is Your Land Too”: The Inaugural Conference of the New York Immigrant Assistance Consortium On June 9th, the New York Immigrant Assistance Consortium, coordinated by the NYIC, held its inaugural conference “This Land is Your Land, Too: Working Together for Immigrant New Yorkers”. Nearly 300 immigrant advocates, legal service providers, government officials, and community members contributed to discussions on how to better coordinate support for New York’s immigrant communities. Sessions covered topics such as how to combat immigration fraud, prepare for administrative relief, and incorporate lessons from DACA, past legalization efforts, and other mass assistance efforts like those following Hurricane Sandy and 9/11.
Diverse New York Conference Discusses Immigrants Rights 6/11/14 Until now, there has been little coordination or constructive conversation among those stakeholders, but the recent “This Land is Your Land Too” conference in a packed Manhattan meeting hall aimed to change that. To help, the New York Immigration Coalition, which organized this conference, runs a government-funded program to train local grassroots advocates who are not attorneys.
Aiding New New Yorkers
Advocates to renew push for driver’s licenses for undocumented residents January 9, 2014 “The license issue affects immigrants without permanent residence in substantial ways and puts many at risk of detention and deportation after traffic stops for unlicensed and uninsured driving,” advocates said.
u March–April 2014: Affecting Change on the City Level On March 3rd, Councilmember Carlos Menchaca hosted NYIC’s legislative breakfast to inform the City of NYIC’s top priorities for the year. A panel of experts spoke about our top City agenda items, including immigration enforcement issues, and ensuring adequate resources for immigrant services such as ESL classes, legal services, and integration efforts.
Builders of the New New York AWARDS
3/22/14 State officials joined the New York Immigration Coalition to celebrate the anniversary of the establishment of the New York State Office for New Americans. Through the office, 27 “opportunity centers” were created in the state to make available quality legal help, English language training and entrepreneurship, organizers say. p q March 5, 2014: NYIC 17th Annual Immigrant Day of Action In another successful annual advocacy trip to Albany, 250 immigrants, workers, DREAMers, family members, and supporters from across the state converged on March 5th for the Coalition’s 17th Annual Immigrant Day of Action! Advocates representing over 40 organizations met with key allies in the State Assembly and Senate to push forward our 2014 Immigrant Equality Agenda.
p q March 18, 2014: Supporting Services for Immigrants Across New York State On March 18th, the NYIC held a press conference at the Albany Public Library with New York Secretary of State Cesar Perales to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Office for New Americans (ONA). Through ONA, 27 Opportunity Centers were created across New York to provide quality legal help, English–for-Speakersof-Other-Language (ESOL) training, and entrepreneurship support for New York State’s newcomers. The NYIC continues work with ONA and calls on the Governor to make even more resources available for this important statewide initiative!
10th Annual
500-plus New Yorkers joined a NYRIR rally at Foley Square on April 10th.
p q January 2014–MAY 2014: New Yorkers for Real Immigration Reform Phase I: Congress Must Act; Pass Immigration Reform New Yorkers for Real Immigration Reform (NYRIR), a campaign of 170 diverse community, faith, labor, and business groups, coordinated by the New York Immigration Coalition, intensified its efforts to hold Congress accountable to their inaction on immigration reform. Through May 2014, NYRIR held major actions including occupying Congressional offices in New York, meeting with representatives including Senator Schumer, and holding rallies in ley Fo in lly ra ds re Hund Washington D.C and New York. rights, nt ra ig m im r fo Every step of the way, New York Square bill to of e ag ss pa r fo push ID card immigrants shared their emotional l pa ici un m C stories of families torn apart by create NY tered by these deportation, imploring Congress 4/10/14 “We are bat angered by are we and ns to put an end to roadblocks and deportatio courage,” Steven of k lac ns’ cia liti pass immigration reform for the our po ector of the New dir ive cut exe oi, Ch benefit of the entire nation. n Coalition, which York Immigratio . ly, told the crowd coordinated the ral
p q May 2014: May Day Rally Focuses on Worker Rights and Immigrant Rights NYIC helped coordinate the historic May Day rally once again, calling on New Yorkers to unite against deportations plaguing immigrant communities!
May Day rally in NYC for workers’, immigrants’ rights
5/1/14 “Our communities are under attack,” said Steve Choi, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, citing deportation and the denied economic justice. “When immigrants and labor are united, we will fight for immigration reform.”
p t June 23, 2014: Honoring Leaders at Builders 2014
On June 23rd, we held our annual fundraising gala at the beautiful Capitale on the Bowery. This year we celebrated and honored contributions from several inspiring immigrant rights leaders including Jacques Brand, Chief Executive Officer of North America, Deutsche Bank; Eliseo Medina, International Secretary-Treasurer, SEIU; and Parkin Lee, Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer & Secretary, The Rockefeller Group. We also honored Robert Morgenthau, Former Manhattan District Attorney with a special Lifetime Achievement Award for his service to New York’s immigrant communities!
q u July–August 2014: Supporting Migrant Youth With nearly 50,000 unaccompanied minors detained at the U.S southern border fleeing severe violence in Central America this year, the NYIC immediately geared up to support close to 9,000 children arriving in New York. The NYIC created a statewide initiative, the “New York Unaccompanied Minors Working Group” to bring together legal service providers, health and education providers, state and local government to fashion a coordinated response to help these children. Among the challenges for Mayor’s Office of recently arrived youth Immigrant Affairs Nisha are accelerated court Agarwal speaks about hearings that leave little need for legal service time to obtain quality coordination to support legal representation. recently arrived youth The NYIC quickly at NYIC. mobilized Youth Assistance Fairs, free legal clinics for immigrant youth. Our free legal clinics have served close to 300 unaccompanied immigrant youth thus far.
Coordinan ayuda para los niños inmigrantes que llegan a Nueva York Translation: Coordinating Support for Child Migrants Arriving in New York 6/23/14 “Most of these kids come because they face violence including threat of death, said Steven Choi, executive director of the Coalition for Immigrants in New York , who leads the team called the “New York Unnacompained Minors Working Group” during a press conference to announce the efforts.
t Ongoing: PROTECTING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS AND SUPPORTING IMMIGRANT PARENTS Conducting cutting edge advocacy, the NYIC’s Education Advocacy Collaborative has worked tirelessly to educate the City and State on the needs of English Language Learners (ELLs) and immigrant parents—particularly around the issue of providing adequate interpretation services at schools and the obstacles that immigrant parents face when enrolling their children in school. In an effort to continue supporting immigrants parents, the NYIC continued its training series for New York immigrant parents on how to send their children to college by using our guide, “Your Children Can Go to College – Yes They Can!”. The guide has been translated into several new languages including Bengali, Arabic, and Haitian Creole! The NYIC and project partners have distributed 20,000 guides and reached approximately 1,500 parents over the last two years in multiple languages.
q August 2014: Combating Immigration Fraud In a huge victory for the NYIC and our partners, the Immigrant Assistance Service Enforcement Act was signed into law by Governor Cuomo. The bill, which provides new and increased protections for immigrants, was closely crafted by the NYIC with our member agencies and partners, and Assemblymember Marco Crespo and Senator Ruben Diaz. Steven Choi, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, said “We are proud to have worked closely with the Governor’s office and Assemblymember Crespo and Senator Diaz in crafting a bill that provides new protections against immigration fraud. We look forward to working with Maritza Mejia Ming, Chief, the Governor and the Office Kings County District Attorney for New Americans to build on Immigrant Fraud Unit speaks this legislation and ensure that warns about immigration scams New York is and tactics of “notarios.” invested in immigrant communities that will pay off in benefits for our entire State.” –in an August 6th press release from Governor Cuomo’s office.
t ongoing: NYIC’s Regional Advocacy The NYIC has expanded its reach by hiring regional advocacy coordinators to support our member groups in Westchester and Long Island! On October 16th, we worked with our partner agencies in Westchester and Lower Hudson Valley to respond to vicious political ads scapegoating immigrant communities. In Long Island, we are working to support our partners to hold County Executive Ed Mangano accountable to the executive orders he signed in 2013 guaranteeing free translation and interpretation to Limited-English Proficient (LEP) residents of Nassau County at county agencies.
u Ongoing: NYIC Training Institute As the state-designated trainer on Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) Accreditation and Recognition, the NYIC, with support from the Department of State’s Office for New Americans, develops an intensive 40-hour training to help non-profit groups qualify for BIA recognition and accreditation, expanding the corps of groups who are authorized and qualified to provide immigration legal assistance. This year, the NYIC conducted four intensive 40-hour BIA accreditation trainings. These week-long trainings, which include site visits to immigration court, mock trials, and visits to citizenship ceremonies, along with a substantive immigration law curriculum, take place across New York State.
What’s Next for Obamacare in New York?
9/29/14 “New York has an important opportunity to reach immigrants who may not have enrolled during the first open enrollment period,” said Claudia Calhoon, a health care specialist at the New York Immigration Coalition.
p q Ongoing: Advocating for Greater Access to Health Care NYIC’s Health Advocacy team made enormous strides this year from educating hundreds of immigrant New Yorkers on access to healthcare and enrollment options to lobbying the City to insure more eligible immigrants and boosting access to health care for the undocumented.
400 NYRIR members form a human chain outside 26 Federal Plaza, gaining significant media attention including coverage from CNN.
p q November 2014: Immigrants Vote! This year, the NYIC’s Immigrants Vote! campaign, made up of 10 active partner organizations, led an aggressive voter engagement program in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester county. This year, we contacted 20,000 immigrant voters and registered 12,000 voters in the lead up to midterm elections!
More Than 1,400 Immigrants Register to Vote After New York Voter Drive
A voter registration campaign underway by the New York Immigration Coalition saw over 1,400 new American immigrants sign up to vote over the past two weeks.
p q June–November 2014: New Yorkers for Real Immigration Reform Phase II: We’re “All In For Relief” As part of NYRIR, we shifted our campaign to call on President Obama to act where Congress has failed. With 1,100 deportations a day, NYRIR campaign members made an urgent call for executive action. Our message to the President: We can no longer wait while our communities suffer; you can provide administrative relief to stop unjust deportations and keep families together. Through sending postcards to the White House, thousands of calls, and several creative actions including a 350-person townhall to share our communities’ stories and a 400-person human chain around New York’s immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza, we successfully 300 people watch President Obama’s captured the administrative relief announcement at attention of the NYIC’s watch party on November 20th. White House.